GDC 06: AGEIA PhysX Physics Processor

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We've got hot video clips of the first PPU in action!

By Gerry Block

We're at GDC today, and Gear is out to find the hottest new hardware. Thus far it's been a pretty impressive show and we've seen some pretty hot stuff. AGEIA Corporation blew us away with a demo of their new PhysX dedicated physics processor. It's a card that slides into a PCI slot and takes a massive amount of collision and particle interaction load off of the CPU.

Cell Factor. None of that stuff will disappear when it lands.

Their demos showed a truly new level of detail and realism. Finally we're seeing truly realistic cloth, hair, and water. Boxes shatter into a million pieces and the shards don't just disappear after a few seconds, they stay in game and can be picked up and thrown. Fully destructible environments are finally a reality, and when designers truly embrace the technology, traditional gameplay archetypes will change.

Cell Factor. Not scripted or animated. Crazy real-time physics.

Coolest of all is that this isn't something we'll be waiting years for. It's out, today. Alienware is offering the PhysX card in a variety of their gaming machines, and other manufacturers will soon be offering the cards individually.

Hanger of Doom.

We've got a full and detailed report in the works, but we got some sweet video clips of what the PhysX card does for games and couldn't wait to share them. Cell Factor is really quite impressive and is a good look at the future.